As leaders of vibrant Iranian-American communities in California, Texas, and Missouri, we are sometimes amazed, but not really surprised to see how often our campaign for democratic change by the people of Iran, in favor of a free Iran, has come under fire. After all, we seek to oust the world’s number-one state-sponsor of terrorism and leading per capita executioner of its own citizens, a goal which certainly serves American national security interests.
But our cause does not serve the interests of the handful of discredited apologists of the Tehran regime. Or of that regime’s lobbyists in Washington. (Yes, even the mullahs have a D.C. lobby!) Of late, we have seen particularly venomous and defamatory propaganda targeting former U.S. officials who addressed scores of conferences and seminars we organized on U.S. policy on Iran.
We care more deeply than most about U.S. Iran policy because we came to this country after enduring unspeakable brutality and hardships at the hands of the ruling theocracy. Many of us have lost family members due to repression in Iran, and many have relatives among the ranks of the main Iranian opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), which for nearly a
